Fast Analysis for Fast Food

[paul-dewsbury]

In my previous role as an analytical chemist, I know that the most time consuming and often the most disliked task of analysis is the sample preparation. But, help is on hand for those of us involved in trace elemental analysis. A recently released application brief describes wonderfully how the pain can be taken out of sample preparation when determining trace metals in rice (link to peer-reviewed article on trace metals in wild rice).

The paper titled: Analysis of Trace Elements in Rice using an Autodilution System Coupled with the Thermo Scientific i...(downloadable PDF) discusses, in detail, the workflow for rice analysis and the time that can be saved by using an automated sample/standard autodilution system, (Elemental Scientific prepFAST system) for high-throughput analysis.

Recently I read with interest a fantastic post, titled, Your Elemental Analysis is Costing you More Than you Think: Part 2 (link to post), on our blog, where the author talks in detail about the benefits of automated and intelligent liquid dilution, so to have a dedicated application to food safety was great to see.

If, like me, you like to know some of the technical background and how it actually works, there is a well-written technical note certainly worth reading, titled: Automated, Intelligent Sample Preparation: Integration of the ESI prepFAST Auto-Dilution System with... (downloadable pdf).

For informative overviews of detecting trace elements in a food safety laboratory, check out some informative short videos on our Food and Beverage video page; in particular, view this short 3-minute video summarizing some of the key points to consider: Detecting trace elements | Food safety and environmental lab update.

 

Additional Resources

Do check out our online Food Community which is a wonderful resource that is totally dedicated to our Food and Beverage customers and features the latest on-demand webinars, videos, application notes, and more.

 

Is speeding up sample preparation or rice analysis of interest to your laboratory? If so I would like to hear your thoughts and experiences